the better part of your council agree with it. Then
shall you consider the probable result of acting upon
all your advices: as hate, peace, war, honour, gain,
loss, and many other things. And in all these things
you must choose the best and avoid all else. Then
must you take into consideration the root whereof is
grown the matter of your counselling, and what fruit
it may engender. Then, too, you shall consider all
of the causes and examine into the causes of causes.
And when you have examined your counselling as I
have outlined to you, and have determined which
part of it is the better and more profitable, and have
found it to be approved by many wise and elderly
men: then shall you consider whether you have
power to carry it to a good end. For surely reason
will not permit a man to begin a thing, save he carry
it through as he should. Nor should anyone take upon
himself a burden so heavy that he cannot bear it.
For says the proverb: He that too much embraces,
confines but little. And Cato says: 'Attempt only
what thou hast power to do, lest the great task so
oppress thee that it shall behoove thee to forgo that
which thou hast begun.' And if it be that you are in
doubt whether you can perform a thing, choose
rather to suffer than to begin. For Petrus Alfonsus
says: If you have power to do any thing which you
must later regret, it is better to say nay than yea/
That is to say, it is better to keep silence than to
speak. TJben may you apprehend, and for stronger
reasons, that if you have the ability to carry out any
work whereof it is likely that later you must repent,
then it is better to suffer it to remain undone than
to begin it. Well do they speak who forbid a man to
attempt a thing of which he has doubt of his ability
to perform it. And afterward, when you have thor-
oughly examined your counsels, as I have set forth,
and are convinced that you can carry through your
enterprise to its goal, conform to it, then, gravely and
carefuEy to the end.

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